Promises Saving Stiles
by LoveIsNotForSinners
Summary: When he left, Scott was there to watch Stiles crumble and break and lose his mind, Scott was there trying to help Stiles. And it take years for Stiles to be like he was before. Excerpt:you promised. You told me you'd be here, you swore you'd be here for me. You told me you loved me, you told me that was enough. Oh God, what am I gonna do? What am I gonna do now?


AN: Holiday party went as expected. Drunk people told stories, I got annoyed fast and I got force fed cookies. This is based off of a story and older lady told me about her best friend – names anonymous. And a few added touches to suit the series. It was also my shot at partly redeeming Scott and writing Sterek for my fans. I was very hesitant to post this story.

Pairing: Stiles/Derek, Scott&Stiles bromance.

Summary: Without you, he lost him mind, I watched him crumble and beg. He got better but I guess it was too late to save him because only a few years later he was meeting up with you again.

Warning: major character deaths. Mental breakdowns.

_You promised, you promised. You told me you'd be here, you swore you'd be here for me. You told me you loved me, you told me that was enough. Oh God, what am I gonna do? What am I gonna do now? You promised you'd make it, you told me...you told me...you said this was the one thing that was important to you, I was the only thing important to you and you promised me that no matter what you'd make it. You promised you'd do this. That all the supernatural things and natural things in the world couldn't keep you from me, but they did. They did and you're not here...you lied. What am I gonna do?_

It happens so fast, the pack had already known about it. The group out for dinner, waiting. Scott and Stiles had moved in together while they attended college. Allison and Lydia moved away to different colleges but returned home once they caught ear about the surprise. Allison and Scott were on again off again, while Issac had started seeing a cute girl at his college. Lydia was still talking to Jackson a bit and wasn't really serious with anyone at the moment. Stiles and Derek though, after Derek had returned home without his sister, they had started something that confused the hell out of Scott. When it became serious the entire pack gave Derek the 'best friends/big brother talk' and then gave Stiles the same talk. The only people who didn't warn Stiles were Melissa and the Sheriff but they gave it to Derek like a parent should. When Derek had came to Scott and the Sheriff, Scott wasn't sure if he was horrified, shocked or scared. Maybe a combination of all three. Scott told Allison who told Lydia who told Jackson who told Danny who told Issac and all of them had to keep it a secret from Stiles. Every day Stiles would come home, narrow his eyes at Scott and try to get it out of his best friend. Scott was good at keeping secrets. He was, he'd just stare at Stiles until the other boy gave up. Stiles was hesitant about coming to dinner tonight, he had a 'huge test in the morning that he couldn't afford to fail and he'd fail it if he went'. If only they knew how true that was.

"Is he coming?" Lydia asked and Scott gave an unsure shrug, pulling the phone closer to his ear as he looked into their parking spots. Stiles' jeep still hadn't pulled up yet.

"I don't know for sure, I think so..."

"What do you mean you think so? Scott, you have to drag his little human ass out here right now, I did not come back to Beacon Hills for him not to show up." He can hear Derek talking in the background but can't quiet make out the words.

"He's not home yet. I'll call him, I'll get him there just...give me a few extra minutes." Scott grabs his keys and pulls on a jacket, pressing the phone to his shoulder as he did so. Lydia agreed. Derek didn't know everyone knew but they weren't being to subtle about it. He heard Issac make up an excuse about missing pack to Derek earlier, which wasn't a complete lie. He hangs up and calls Stiles, who answers on the third ring. "Stiles, where the hell are you?"

"I'm at the library man, calm down." Stiles says back, he listens to the rustling of the papers in the background and sighs.

"Allison, Lydia and Issac are all in town to see us, if you don't come home and go out with us right now, I will trash your room and lock you out of it." Scott threatens and he knows Stiles is rolling his eyes. "Will you just come out, please? You've been studying enough, we all know you're gonna pass." Stiles goes quiet for a while.

"I have a feeling." Stiles says and Scott knows that voice, that's Stiles' 'there's impending doom coming' voice and he sighs. Stiles doesn't have a feeling, and if he does it's probably because of Derek.

"Stiles, will you just trust me. Nothing bad is going to happen, not tonight. I promise." He hears some more shuffling and perks up as he rests against the counter.

By the time they arrive they've already ordered the pretzel sticks Stiles likes. The human boy smiles and slides easily into the seat next to Derek, pecking his boyfriend lightly. He greets the three friends, asking about college while he grabs a pretzel and rips it. They talk about their classes and friends and parties for a while. Scott looks to Allison and smiles before turning his attention back to Stiles and Derek, who are flirting like they usually do...like it's still a secret they're together. It settles down sometime after they've finished and before they've gotten the desert Scott and Issac ordered. Stiles is leaned slightly against Derek, who leans down slightly to whisper in his ear.

"Wanna get out of here?" Scott's eyes turn on Derek, almost betrayed while Stiles chuckles quietly. Stiles sits up a bit and looks to Scott who has to avert his eyes.

"We're gonna head out, you guys, see you tomorrow?" The group look at him, nodding before looking at Derek as Stiles stands. Derek just waves at them and grabs stands up. "You know, I usually don't put out on the first date." Stiles jokes and Derek smiles at him shaking his head, Stiles beams at him and the two exit the restaurant. "You bring you're car?" Stiles starts heading towards his car but Derek pulls him back, hand lightly gripping Stiles, who looks at him curiously.

"Let's go for a walk, we haven't seen each other much recently." Stiles tilts his head but smiles and lets Derek lead the way. The two walk quietly for a while, Stiles enjoying the moment. Derek enjoying the moment while his heart pounded heavily in his chest. "You remember when we first met?" Stiles lets out a laugh.

"Yeah, Scott was bit by a werewolf and you scolded us for being on your property." Stiles faces him and raises a brow. "And I thought your ass looked amazing in those jeans." Derek smiles at him, shaking his head. Only Stiles.

"Thanks." Derek says, kissing Stiles softly. Stiles kisses back and Derek pulls away, both of them stopped in the woods. "We've changed a lot from then." Stiles smiles and nods. "Me especially," Stiles furrows his brows and tilts his head. "I mean, before you I was a wreck and a huge asshole, I'm still an asshole just not as bad when I'm with you." Stiles nods and laughs slightly but doesn't interrupt. "I didn't know what this was, I didn't know what love was." Stiles eyes dart between Derek's. "You came and you challenged everything I did, you pushed me as far as you could and you found your way into my heart." Stiles licks his parted lips and Derek swallows. "You make me a better person. And all I need is you're love and I feel like I can do everything. I promise you I'll be here for you, I'll never let you go. You're the only person that's important to me, the only person that matters." Stiles' smile is small as he takes in the words. "And we're gonna face all the struggles and hardships but if we have each other, we'll be okay, it'll be enough. I promise I'll never leave you. Genim Stilinski, will you marry me?" Stiles stares at him, lips parted and twisted up at the sides as Derek finishes, pulling a ring from his back pocket.

"Holy..." Stiles breathes before nodding. "Yeah, yes, of course, God of course I'll marry you." Stiles throws his arms around Derek who sighs into his neck holding him. His other hand rests on Stiles' back. "I love you." Stiles says, kissing him.

"I love you too." Derek murmurs against the lips when they pull away and slips the gold band onto Stiles finger.

"Is that why everyone was here? Because you were gonna propose?"

"I only told Scott and I was gonna do it after dinner and none of those were words I prepared at all." Stiles laughs as they walk back to the restaurant. They fall into an easy conversations and Stiles can't help but notice the feeling of the ring on his finger.

Derek drops Stiles off a few hours later and Scott meets him at the door, Allison, Issac and Lydia in tow. Stiles raises a brow at the three before grinning them and telling them he said yes. He ends up talking about the proposal on his couch with Lydia and Allison, Scott and Issac listening from the other side of the room, chuckling softly. Stiles plays with the ring, running his fingers over it, knowing he wasn't going to be able to sleep but the smile never fell off his face. Derek loved him. Derek was going to marry him. _" Stiles, I promise you nothing is going to stop me from showing up at our wedding, not the supernatural and not the natural. Nothing can keep me from marrying you, I promise that's the one thing I'll show up to early." _Derek swore to him after Stiles made a joke about Derek getting kidnapped and not showing up. Stiles falls asleep on the couch at some time and the two girls and werewolf leave.

"_I'll love you forever." Stiles says when Derek shows up after running away on them. They spent a week not talking, Stiles hadn't forgiven him, had been too upset. "Even when I should hate you, I'm gonna love you because I can't hate you and it's not fair. It's not fair, Derek, because you hurt me."_

"_I'm sorry." Derek mutters again, sitting on Stiles' bed while the young man purses his lips together._

"_Next time...just...just tell me okay. I get it you think love makes you weak or whatever but just tell me. God, I spent the past few months thinking you were dead or-or-or dying. Do you know what that did to me?" Stiles stares at him, hoping the older man understands. His eyes look up to meet Stiles'._

"_There's no next time." Derek promises. "I want this...forever." Stiles smiles and leans back in his chair._

"_Dude, we're going to have an awesome future together. I mean, we'll grow old and still be having bad fights and ugly murders on our hands but it'll be freaking awesome, the two of us. With Scott and Issac and Lydia, obviously." Derek just smirks at him and raises his brows, letting the younger male continue on what their future would look like, laughing when he finishes by saying. "But that doesn't mean propose, Sourwolf, I never said I wanted to marry you." _

Scott stays up, watching some TV while Stiles is asleep on the couch. He debated moving his friend to the bedroom but knew once Stiles was up he would stay up. He didn't want to risk waking his friend when he had that big test tomorrow. Scott will totally brag about how he was right, that nothing bad happened, once Stiles is awake for school. The phone rings and wakes his best friend from his sleep with a groan to which Scott chuckles lightly, before tuning him out. Stiles grabs it sleepily and pulls it to his ear, covering a yawn with the back of his hand.

"Hello?" Stiles sits up when his father's voice cracks through. "Hey day, what's up?" He asks and Scott smirks lightly, remembering the man's face when Derek said he wanted to marry Stiles. "What?" Scott's head snaps to his friend whose whisper is chocked. "No...dad, no." Stiles says, eyes filling up with tears, his lips parted slightly. "No, no, dad, please tell me you're joking. Please, I just...we were..." Stiles brings a fist to his lips as a sob escapes them and Scott rushes over, sitting near him. "Okay, Alright." He inhales. "I'll be there in five minutes." He hangs up and pockets the phone.

"Stiles?" Stiles faces Scott and his face crumbles.

"They found a body on the highway." Stiles chokes out. "It's Derek, Scott, Derek's..." He gasps out and Scott grabs him letting his best friend sob into his chest. "Scott, Derek...he promised..." Stiles sobs into his chest and Scott stares at the wall, lips parted, his own tears burning on the brim of his eyes.

"It'll be okay." He tries and Stiles just sobs into his chest, Scott feels Stiles' heart break.

Stiles sits next to Scott at the funeral, staring at the front, sitting completely still, vision blurred by tears. Scott has an arm around his friend. Allison and Lydia are sitting next to them, Lydia's hand holding Stiles as the man stares unblinking. He swallows heavily and blocks out everything around him. _This isn't real. Please don't be real. Please. _He feels like he can't breathe, like his entire world came crashing down. He tries to pretend, he really does but what is he supposed to do. No one mentions the ring on his finger, he doesn't look at it, doesn't touch it. His friends stay a while and Scott puts him to bed later that night.

"Stiles, everything's going to be okay." Stiles just nods and rolls over, waiting for Scott to leave to clutch his pillow and cry into it. He knew Scott could hear him but he didn't really care. He cried into it, letting the tears fall and stain the white cover.

"Derek." He croaks out, pleading with the man. This wasn't real life, it couldn't be. He couldn't lose Derek, they were gonna get married. They were supposed to get married. They were getting married. How could someone take that away from him? What happened to forever?

Scott listens to his friend for two nights, calling out quietly for Derek in his sleep. Scott comes in one night and just lays with Stiles as the man clutches onto his shirt and Scott just lets him. Scott just lays with him and tries to push back his own tears because if that were Allison...Scott would be destroyed, Scott would feel crazy. Stiles mutters his thanks in the morning and the next locks his bedroom door so Scott can't get in but Scott stays to listen to the boy, hoping he gets a nights rest. He doesn't. When morning comes, Scott's hesitant in his steps when he sees Stiles loading guns at their kitchen table.

"Stiles?" Stiles looks at him and raises a brow before he continues. "Stiles, what are you doing?"

"I'm going after the hunters." Stiles says almost like he's telling Scott something he should already know. He looks at Scott with his eyebrows raised as if daring the man to stop him.

"Stiles." Scott sighs. "Chris said he'd take care of them." Stiles glares slightly and stands up, securing the gun in his pants. "Stiles. Stiles!"

"They killed Derek Scott!" Stiles yells back to his friend. "And we are doing absolutely nothing about it! We are sitting here and they're getting away with murdering the only person who will ever love me the only person I'll ever love and it's not fair Scott." His voice slowly lowers and his face crumbles from anger to sadness. Scott looks at him, sympathetic and sad. "It's not fair." Stiles croaks and Scott nods.

"I know." Scott pulls his friend in, pulling the gun from his pants and placing it back on the table. "You'll get through this, I know you will." Scott hopes there's someway Derek's watching them, seeing what he means to Stiles. Scott wishes there was someway to go back and get the blue-eyed wolf to return. But all he can do is comfort Stiles because that's his brother and it's what Derek would have wanted.

Weeks pass, Scott sits with Stiles sometimes and they try to pretend everything's okay but Scott knows Stiles isn't the same, not after this. He saw it in Stiles eyes the second the man got the call, a part of Stiles went with Derek. It's been a year and Scott's been through the motions with Stiles. He's cried with Stiles, he's let Stiles deny it, he's listened to Stiles beg for Derek back, he's let Stiles yell at him and shriek that he needed Derek. He's heard the 'if I didn't go they wouldn't have gotten him' and 'if I just forgot about my test and stayed the night he'd still be alive'. He's sat through the 'why Derek?' and the whispers of 'please, Derek, please, come back'. He's cried on his own watching his friend grieve, watching Stiles lose his mind. To the outside world people think Stiles is doing fine, has finally let go of Derek but then they see the ring and they think he's just coping well enough. Scott, though, Scott sees it all. Scott deals with Stiles reading letters the couple exchanged when Stiles was out of state and out of country. Scott sees the pictures still hung up. Scott sometimes even watches Stiles go completely insane.

It was worse when it first started, things were thrown and Stiles would sob until he couldn't breath, until he slipped unconscious. It was the nights when Stiles had nightmares, the nights where Stiles woke him up shrieking that Scott pleaded with Derek himself, begged Derek to help him out. Scott even prayed that someone would help Stiles because he couldn't do it. No one could do it. He hated the hunters that took Derek away, hated them more than anyone could hate another living person for what they've done to Stiles. Stiles kept up a good front most of the time, even in the house. He makes everyone believe him, makes his father think he's okay. But when he dreams, when he's half-asleep he loses

"DEREK! DEREK!" Scott hears the shrieks from the room next door and jerks up. He's out of his bed in a heart beat, smashing through Stiles' door. Stiles is sitting up, tears rolling down his face and Scott grabs him, pulling the man to his chest and holding him. "You promised! Derek, you promised!" Stiles screams, struggling against Scott's hold.

"Stiles, sh, it's okay. You'll be okay." Scott says, rocking his friend until the man calms down a bit. "You're okay." Stiles' hands rest on Scott's chest, stop pushing and his heart rate slows.

"He said he'd make it Scott." Stiles whispers before falling asleep and it shatters Scott's heart. He doesn't know what to do to make Stiles feel better, isn't sure how he could make a situation like this better. He just wants Stiles to be okay.

Three years pass and Scott's there through it all. He's there through restless nights when Stiles gets out of bed and just wanders around the room. He's there when Stiles tucks the memories into a box, ring still securely on his finger, he pulls pictures off the wall and rambles on about the picture before placing it gently in the box. He helps Stiles reorganize his room, moving the furniture and listening to his friend talk about grades at school, watches as Stiles places a picture of the pack on his table by his bed. Derek and him were in the middle and not even paying attention to the picture to caught up in a conversation Stiles tells Scott was about the ice cream shop they went to earlier that day. He studies with Stiles when the man has a big test and makes Stiles help him when he has one, getting Stiles mind off things. He goes with Stiles to the cemetery on Derek and his anniversary of their first official date, holds Stiles as the man tries to keep it together. Reassures Stiles that it's okay to be upset once and a while.

"He's not gone you know?" Scott looks over to his friend speaks, running a hand over his cheek.

"Sti-" Stiles looks to him and shakes his head, cutting Scott off.

"He's not gone." Stiles says again and looks towards Derek's grave. "He promised forever and...nothing was going to stop him. He's still here with us." He looks to Scott again. "When you go all Alpha from what he taught you he's there, when I sleep he's..." He chokes on his words and swallows to continue. "He's there. It might not be the same but he's there and he always will be, whether we know it or not." Scott stares at Stiles and nods, Stiles gives a half shrug staring at Derek's grave. "Derek's never broken a promise to me..." Stiles admits, a tear sliding down his cheek before he brings his hand to brush it away. The sun reflects off the gold band on his finger and Scott eyes it for a few moments, wonders if Stiles is ever going to remove it. He wonders if maybe Stiles thinks that if he continues to wear it one day Derek will keep his promise. Scott just hopes Stiles really is coming to terms with losing Derek, he knows how much it hurt him. He saw it, he was there for it all and Stiles never stopped thanking him.

It's a while after Derek's death, almost eighteen years but not yet that many. Scott got married and moved out after Stiles basically shoved him out of the house. Scott still comes by every week to make sure Stiles is okay but Stiles is always fine. He's always fine. He's even allowed Lydia to set him up on blind dates. None of which have gone anywhere. Scott still eyes the ring on Stiles' finger everytime and begins to wonder if maybe that's the only connection he feel he has left to Derek. Which Scott knows isn't true. Stiles was the only person who Derek cared about aside from his sister, they have a deeper connection than any church or ring ever could give them. The years pass by and it becomes something they barely talk about, hardly think about. Stiles goes out with them, works and meets people. He seems to be living life and Scott's glad. Scott's wife is glad, watching her lover's friend become who Scott so often describes from their childhood years. In her mind there's before Derek Stiles, during Derek Stiles and After Derek Stiles. She listens to Scott talk about Stiles after their 'bro's night out'. Sometimes Stiles crashes at their place after one, since he can get drunk and Scott can't.

No one thinks anything of it when Stiles drops Scott off one night before heading down the dark road. Scott comes to lay down with his wife and falls asleep not too long after talking about the night at Stiles' apartment. The call comes in at 3:22am, waking Scott from a deep sleep. Scott listens to the officer explain the situation and he's wide awake while he listens. His wife wakes and looks at him as he thanks the guy and hangs up.

"Stiles has been in an accident." Scott tells her and she sits up to stare at him horrified. "They said he didn't make it." And when Scott makes it to the hospital he can't help but hope that Stiles gets to see Derek. After coping for all these years he deserves it. It's the first think he accidentally mutters in the car to his wife, without knowing he said it.

_You promised, you promised. You told me you'd be here, you swore you'd be here for me. You told me you loved me, you told me that was enough. Oh God, what am I gonna do? What am I gonna do now? You promised you'd make it, you told me...you told me...you said this was the one thing that was important to you, I was the only thing important to you and you promised me that no matter what you'd make it. You promised you'd do this. That all the supernatural things and natural things in the world couldn't keep you from me, but they did. They did and you're not here...you lied. What am I gonna do?_

AN: I actually teared up a few times during the telling of the original story and retelling it now. The biggest edit was the mental break-down where Stiles decides to go after the hunters.


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